In January of this year, I had the wonderful opportunity to review these Play to Learn With Bricks Activity Books. I was beyond impressed. A partnership was born and I could not be more excited to work with the founder, Ann Kositchotitana, to present to you, their latest edition of these activity books!
First of all, I have to say, I just love their story:
Ann Kositchotitana is mom to two wonderfully talented girls: Natalie and Sofia. They moved from Singapore to California, in order to benefit from the special education programs here in the US, since Natalie had been born with Down Syndrome in 2015. Ann noticed Natalie excelling with Legos and realized she could create a product that would not only help teach her daughter, but so many others. These books teach problem solving, independent play, fine motor skills, colors, numbers, shapes, counting, and SO MUCH MORE. What benefits one, can benefit all.
So, let me tell you what I love so much about these books:
Caroline is 3.5. So, that being said, these books are hard for her. She is not to the point where she can do these activities without assistance. There are, however, so many things she understands and can do on her own, and the books teach her so much…
Check out my quick intro video to get familiar with these amazing books and what I love so much:
1. Book familiarity
I think this is huge today. I know our children are growing up in a world where they can “google” anything. Our daughter, at 3.5, already knows google to be a verb. Even with that, however, it is important to know how to use books. It is important to learn about things like the index and the table of contents. Being able to use a book as a resource is an invaluable tool.
This book, whether they intentionally did this or not, creates that book familiarity and teaches those concepts. Our 3.5 year old understands the table of contents and how to find the activity based on a page number. Happy mama!
2. Promotes Independent Play
This book is perfect for the beginning reader. That child is old enough to have the fine motor skills to put Legos together, and will flourish with the independent play and all of the things they’ll learn along the way. I think that beginning reader age is really the ideal age for these books.
The reality, however, is that these books are fun for all ages. The beginning reader, however, can do this on their own. Independent play is something that our children benefit greatly from.
3. Teaches Children How to Follow Written Instructions
Being able to follow written instructions is one of those every day tasks that is essential to know how to do. It is a skill that our children will use the entirety of their lives- whether in the classroom, on the job, or trying to put together IKEA furniture!
Caroline is hard to understand in these videos because she’s on the mend from being sick… but I hope they are clear enough! Oh and we had to improvise… we didn’t have the right color blocks, so we are making a rainbow flamingo!
4. Teaches Countless Skills
(Colors, numbers, counting, sorting, organizing, positioning, fine motor skills, reading, etc.) I’m sure I didn’t even mention all of the skills that are being taught. Basic skills such as number recognition, counting, and color identification are the obvious skills being taught.
But skills like sorting, organizing, having a plan in place before getting started, spacial recognition and positioning are all being taught as well. These are the perfect activities to reinforce fine motor skills as well.
And the beginning reader? They can practice reading and do this all on their own!
5. Fuels Imagination
What, we can build a flamingo with blocks?
How about a house for the flamingo?
Or a park with a pond?
Oh, I know, let’s build a tree!
Yes, these books tell you exactly what to make and how to make it. There’s so much value in being able to just follow instructions and build something. But these books inspire new thoughts. It doesn’t just end with building a flamingo. It opens up a whole world of imaginative thoughts in your child.
6. Teaches the Ability to be Flexible
Watch our videos and you’ll see a toddler that loves order and to do things perfectly. Yet you also see a toddler that goes with the flow. We didn’t have the perfect colors or block shapes in our Lego supply.
Our flamingo is rainbow colored, not pink, white, and black. And yet, she was able to be flexible and build the flamingo without any hiccups. Learning flexibility is something that can be a useful tool, and also helps to promote problem solving.
Ok, so what don’t I like you must be wondering?
I don’t like that we don’t have the Legos to actually complete these activities correctly. No fault of the book itself, but you have to have quite the stash of Legos to be able to do these activities perfectly.
With time, we’ll probably have our Lego collection built up. For now, we purchased our first kit. I was really impressed with the amount of blocks, the type of blocks, and the price of this kit. It seemed like the best starter kit for someone like us with absolutely no Legos at home.
This is the kit we purchased:
I think it would be fantastic if they created activity books paired with Lego kits. That way, we could all have the right Legos on hand to build the activities. Even if that did mean a rainbow flamingo!
These books are just a little too hard for Caroline, at 3.5. Again, it’s no fault of the creators of the book. Caroline will grow into these and love them. In the meantime, parts of it can be a struggle for her. Which is also good… I like tackling things that are hard together and showing her that we can figure it out and solve any problem that comes our way. We can work as a team for now, and she’ll excel later!
Where can you get this book to have in your home?
1. Amazon! Trusty old amazon is the place to go. Why not prime it? Another new verb for this generation…
2. Barnes and Noble (if you feel like getting out of the house)
3. Win one with the giveaway below! That’s right. You can enter the giveaway on this blog. 3 winners will be chosen!
4. Join the Play to Learn Facebook group. You’ll be the first to know about giveaways, you’ll get an exclusive look at new products, and more!
The Giveaway Information:
Check out the box below for all of the ways to enter this giveaway! Don’t forget to actually mark what you’ve done so the system knows you have points in the giveaway 🙂
a Rafflecopter giveaway
-Katrina
